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Still getting used to the 17" coil but liking it more by the day. I would not make any statements about the 6000 or the different coils at this stage, nor will I post any finds until something worth bragging about turns up. Another learning curve that an old bugger must master. Getting there.

Last saturday the weather was fine and the grain was harvested. So I decided a little detecting will be nice. Grabbed the VX3 with the 7" Ultimate DD and headed to one of my favorite fields. Those field is loaded with iron and shrapnel, but a fixed ground balance helps a lot to get the detector stable and do some cherry picking. Two foil bits, a stone like basalt (came in as foil), a mini ball, a button (think prussian ~1900), 1Pfennig 1933, 1Pfennig 1942. Have to come back to this as there seems to be some more...

I've just had a reply from the college! It turns out the gold medal winner is a lady called Joan.. I'll send it back first thing tomorrow morning.. Heaps of good Karma coming my way! 😁

There is no doubt the 7000 has the extra grunt required to punch in beyond the 6000’s capabilities, a good example is in washes where there are large rocks in the bed of the creek bottoms. In the GP and GPX days I worked many hundreds of kilometres of creek beds in the northern parts of Australia and would often pluck a decent widow nugget in amongst the boulders especially up in the Kimberley. Those nuggets would be randomly distributed along the creek lines and it often left me wondering what else was in there being hidden by the larger chunks of diorite and slates liberally scattered about. Unfortunately I have not been able to return to all these locations with the GPZ7000 but the few I did return to were an eye opener with undiscovered mini patches often associated with those original isolated nugget finds. This is just one example of where the ZVT tech provides a definite advantage but its not everywhere, the ground needs to be conducive to the tech and in a lot of places the depth is just not there so the earlier sampling of GeoSense and overall lightness of weight and ease of use of the GPX6000 is far more beneficial. I am actually afraid to use my GPX6000 too much because it is hard to go back to the weight and complexities associated with using the 7000 (harnessing up etc). But I will say this though, it is nice to listen to a 7000 with its steady happy place audio compaired to the twitchy fast paced behaviour of the 6K 😊. JP

From a ground murmur to a waahhh ... around 7 inches deep 🤗

Hey Guys, Been getting a lot of questions on this method of digging, raking and metal detecting. Some have asked if you can do it anywhere and the answer would be Yes, but you might not find anything. I normally only use this method when we have found some nuggets concentrated in a small area, normally in a dry wash bottom. We have dug out nugget patches on the sides of the hills and benches also, but normally when mother nature does the work for you in the washes, you could have better luck in the right spots. We normally use two metal detectors, one for depth due to pockets and deeper crevices and a very sensitive detector like a VLF or now the GPX 6000. In our case we normally use the following tools - Minelab GPZ 7000 with the Nugget Finder Z Search coil 12" Minelab GPX 6000 Metal Detector with the 11" Mono coil Garrett AT Pinpointer (find this one to be the most sensitive to small gold) A couple of good digging picks, we use Apex and Doc's pick with super magnets Large metal rake with metal handle, any other rake is junk and will break quickly Plastic Scoops for recovery Small crevices tools like screwdrivers Plastic straw or narrow hose to blow out cracks/crevices Battery Powered Hammer Drill with Chisel Bit Also, whatever PPE, but we recommend eye glasses, good gloves and even hearing protection if you are using the hammer drill a bunch Hope you all enjoy. Keep in mind, this method has been using since the beginning of placer mining. It's not something we came up with, we just customized it with more modern day tools and technology to make it profitable in some areas to recover more gold. You can also add a good Drywasher and Vac-Pac to the mix if you want to work the gravels for smaller gold. In some areas you might be tossing out ounces of small gold you can't even see.

Condor and I have been playing some more testing 17” mono and 14” DD in extreme magnetite conditions. Testing was on a U.S. nickel to standardize results, simulating a roughly 1/4 ounce nugget, or a men’s gold ring. Ground where no matter what the ground response cannot be entirely eliminated, but is controllable. Depth is hugely impacted, maybe expect about 12” on this type target in ground that is mostly magnetite by weight. It is hard to find ground like this, with west coast beaches being a likely location. This was at a Lake Tahoe beach. Most Tahoe beaches are not all that bad, but I am seeking out the worst of the worst. This stuff kills VLF depth, and even when they work, target id accuracy is a joke past a few inches Both easily beat the 11” mono, no comparison. In general the 17” mono fares way better than I would expect under these conditions, and tends to be my first choice due to a cleaner signal response. The 14” DD however, under just the right circumstances, does have an edge over the 17” mono in getting a smoother ground balance. The only way I can see to decide which to use, would be to have both, and test in your specific ground. If I had to grab just one without knowing, I’d grab the 17” mono. This is the first time I’ve seen a significant difference between normal and difficult in taming the ground. I’m also observing tonal flips based on settings, which may be a factor for some people. My biggest take away - DO NOT BE AFRAID TO LOWER THE SENSITIVITY!! The GPX 6000 retains a remarkable amount of depth even at sensitivity setting of 1. Yes, 1. The ground we tested only allowed for manual of 1 to maybe 4 at most, but I would not have any problem hunting at setting of one with the 17” on larger gold, say 2 grams or a pennyweight, or larger. Signal strength reduces, but the target is still there. So larger gold, extreme ground, 17” mono, do not be afraid to reduce sensitivity to get smooth ground action.

Erik, You really need to stop laughing at this because it is a sensitive subject. One minute a guy can be a guy, and the next minute he can be a she. The same with girls today, boys tomorrow. That is what people are taught now, and I am glad that I had real parents that taught me that there are only males and females. When in doubt just remember that when it hangs your a male, and when you can't see it your a girl.

There are detectors with visual screens that can map out and show the shape of a target you are detecting, so one with surround sound stereo could add a bit extra to it- like alerting you of what you missed and is already behind you!

Who among you has experienced a coil ear breakage? Among those who have experienced a coil ear breakage, how many use or have used the coil/machine under water? I ask because I’m wondering if the added pressure of resistance under the water is the primary cause of breakage (aside from obvious design flaw). I use mine under water occasionally but haven’t had a breakage yet, and trying to avoid one until I buy a coil ear stiffener. Being aware of this issue I try not to over tighten too.

Well in Australia to find large nuggets should be the same as USA. 1. Where someone knowing what they are doing have not been there. 2. Where most people think it not worth giving the location a go. 3. Where you have to cover a large area with a careful coverage. 4. Where you least expect it. They tend to surprise you and even beginners tend to stumble over them. I once found a 80 ounce specimen that yielded over 16 ounces of gold in a place I had found a couple of kilos of gold. It hid on me for over 2 months of gridding the area, and although 24 inches deep I got a soft broad signal on the way back to my hidden vehicle 150 yards from the patch. Note this nuggets fall in the N° 3 category. My first multi ounce nugget 4 oz was found at a completely flogged surface patch. I detected near the road entrance to the surface where the miners had not removed. After getting about ½ Oz I decided to try on the other side road away from the workings. This locations was close to the town road speed limit. On the side of the surfacing of the road the shire had graded a gutter on the edge of the road. I thought I had hit a soft drink can. It turned out to be 4 Oz and across on the other side I got a nice 11 gram bit. Note these two nuggets fall in the N° 1 & 2 category. My wife found a nice nugget just before a fence that us males got over in a hurry to get started on on a new area that we were going to try. Did she rub it in that she just stayed near the car unlike us boys. Note this nugget fall in the N° 2 & 4 category. A guy who lived less than 200 yards from me Found a 96 Oz nugget in a town that most people ignored as no large nuggets were listed in the 20+ Oz Vic Aust. list. Note this nugget fall in the N° 1 & 2 category. It all depends on effort, luck, knowledge and being in the right spot. So good luck to those that try. The main thing is you have to be in the right spot first and know what you are doing.

The Karma is worth more than the Colour for both the finder or the receiver. That is a fantastic promo for our hobby.😍

F350Platinum, I like the way that works. May end up with one of those ear supports before is all over. I have thought it was kinda good that the ear broke on my 11" because it forced me to use the 5x10 all the time. Since then I have gained confidence in it. So in that regard it was a good thing it broke.🤔 Having said that I'll also say I'm very happy to have the 11" back up and going. I like both coils but as it should the 11" has a little more depth. Tom

Spent a couple hours this morning there, nothing special. Earliest coin was a 1958 wheat. Place is still giving up the coins, although sometimes I have to dig in driveway gravel. 😵

I met a guy on the beach a few years back. He had his ctx and I had mine. He said every time he dug a 12-09 it was a ring...every time. I remember thinking he must not do much park hunting . Nice ring. strick

Not a bad trip till lockdown smock down

Only 1 for today’s hour of freedom 🤗

Physically speaking, no. Every place is a puzzle that needs figuring out. The only commonality is the historical data indicating large gold was found in the past. If you want to catch big fish, go where big fish have been caught in the past. In general I don’t hunt places where the records indicate nothing but small gold unless there are no other options.

I'll say this. Thanks Max for helping to promote my books. I don't consider them to be definitive but they do reflect a lot of time swinging with all types for machines. One thing my top pro buddy said to me years ago that I believe to be true is that "You pay to learn" one way or the other--no exceptions. I also see a lot of hunters who say that they "dig everything". For the new hunter--this is the way to pay the most--with your time. While there are a lot of good specific tweaks and tips on the groups and YouTube, having some general theory under your belt lets you begin to learn on your own and at the actual places you hunt. Simple basic skills will also boost your accuracy and reduce frustration. These are all based upon the simple rules of detector physics. Nowhere in any of these posts and videos do I see any of these "old skills" mentioned but they are the bread and butter of learning to find treasure instead of junk. Just for the record, all of my books sell for $16.95. cjc

A friend invested in a Nokta Invenio Pro a few months ago, I refuse to add that Makro bit on the end, it's a mouthful 🙂 He uploaded a video today showing it's use, I hadn't really seen much on it prior to this, he's always said it's pretty cool and now I see why. It shows perhaps where technology is heading, maybe one day we'll be laughing at Target ID's thinking they're old school and have a detector with an image of the target on the screen and this detector seems a first step towards that. It's really worth the watch as it's quite interesting, I personally think it's got a long way to go before I'd be interested in one especially for the price of the thing but it's a great start and shows Nokta is starting to really take shape as a leading detector company and likely to leave some others in the dust in the near future. If they continue developing this technology we have a pretty exciting future for detectors. For me if they could incorporate this into the detector not needing the computer/screen unit and making it handle smaller targets like coins and rings better it'd be pretty cool. Perhaps VLF's haven't been taken to the limits yet, manufacturers just need to think outside of the box.

got out for a 2 hour hunt this evening .. the lakes and rivers around are flooded .. so I hit a clad field, but they were all set up for soccer so I just did the edges .. 1st hunt ever with the vanquish 340 and it gets a solid 6 .. 4 inches down .. 14k white gold .. size 8 .. 1 amethyst .. 4 diamonds .. $3+ in clad .. 1 butterfly pendant .. kind of wish that this would have been #100 .. but it's #101 .. the start of my next 100 .. pretty sure the 1st hunt with the 340 would have paid for the machine with 1 find .. but my wife likes this one so it goes to the jewelers and gets fixed and cleaned .. nickels were ringing up at 13 .. so would you have dug a 6 in a park?

This morning I was surprised to find a gold medal along the beach at Alma Bay on Magnetic Island.. It's a gold medal for women's cricket (that's a weird batting sport here in Oz).. Whoever won it was the 'best on the ground'.. On the reverse is the name of a college in rural Victoria (on the other side of the country).. I suppose neither them or the island were under a Covid lockdown at the time she was here.. To be honest the gold medal is a bit of a consolation price.. I'm not supposed to be on the island but rather in the goldfields with my son.. as I mention in another post I was on my way up there when I broke down.. nursed the 4WD back to the island where I can work on it but will be out of action for a while.. I've contacted the college so I can return it to the rightful winner.. hope I get to meet her! I've never met a gold medal winner before..

I will when I have time and feel like writing a tutorial, but frankly I don’t make things complicated. Normally I just use all metal and dig everything. I do have some notes on settings in my Detailed Review of the 24K

Erik, I would be careful if she rolls up on you with the cricket paddle, You just might get a strange thank you. Remember no pain no gain!!!!! HaHaHa

I think the 4.5" coil is a double stack co planar design. The 6.5X9 is also a great coil and usually gives more stable TID numbers than the DDs.

Hi Cathexis, Hard to tune all the junk out. Correlate mode allows the tightest discrimination. It basically requires the strongest signal to correlate with the mid 7.5 frequency to generate a response. You get to pick how much it it has correlate to respond. Basically, set your disc to around -25, 3 Frequency Correlate on, Start with your Span limit at about 10 and tighten up from there as you need to. 10 kHz band pass filter. Multi tone and dig what beeps. I tend to use this in Mixed mode just so I can hear the stuff that didn't correlate and give me a disc response. Beer cans.....they will probably sound off, but you can size them in Mix mode and tell they are large targets....but...if you are relic hunting...you may want the larger targets anyway and will have to dig them. Concentric will give you tight correlations....the DD coil will have a tiny fudge factor. Good luck! HH Mike

I have never been a fan of Garrett's 4.5 hockey puck. Way to thick for my liking. I would rather just use the 6X9"

I would offer another scenario with a dd coil and your 68+ discrimination setting. You may hear short, broken up high tone iron falsing which may sound like a poorly oriented, tiny or very deep high tone non-ferrous target. If silver is actually present, it could be partially masked and its audio response may also be broken, inconsistent and fragmented. The AT series 5X8" DD coil is an awesome coil. Personally, if you are really sold on the AT Max, I would have it and a smaller concentric as Kac has suggested for really trashy areas and in the case of the 5X8" DD, also for its excellent ergonomics combined with AT series detectors.

It is a design flaw, PERIOD. I recommend not only to get a quality ear stiffener and epoxy it on to the coil. But then also add side plates epoxied to either side. I am in the process of doing my 15" coil right now. Water hunters have more issues with the pressures involved and added weight of water and sand between the coil and cover when going in and out of the water. Do your self a big favor and get it done soon.

If you could read the date then you determine if you want to dig it are not. The next guy comes along a hundred years from then and he reads the date then it could be worth digging up. I don’t know but it’s something to think about. Chuck

Keep what you have and enjoy. PI's are just deeper and can slow you down ..unless you have a clean beach. Sorry about your experience with the AQ, seems a few have had issues. Are you missing anything without a PI.. I would say very little. Me, am I missing any gold.. I am sure I am but the excalibur is keeping me happy for now.

Glad you found the gold medal winner ! Now you're a winner too....

Most of mine finds were from using a new Garretts ADS 1979 detector the only time i used the TR discriminator was when I was detecting under a wire fence. What I did was set it so that moving it in and out from the wire made no change in sound. Well the no discrimination and dig all signals meant that all the new dectector that tried my spots found no coins or jewellery. I know there is a place for discrimination / read out ID but most people miss out on good targets when using them when not needed (easy dug target like the beach or limited junk.)

I have an 800 and have not had that problem. I have a 17"/3030 coil that broke on the ears over 4 years ago. I searched and searched for a remedy for that problem and ended up getting a kit from a guy in the Northeast who used some space age foam/plastic. His kit kinda worked but then you had to attach/glue it to the coil which was a problem. The solution was to make a part with a little bit of flex so you could tighten it with the screw to keep it from flopping up and down. Then you take that and get some plastic ties and cinch that down on the coil. That then takes the flex pressure off of a rigid/glued system of breakage. I was very disappointed when Minelab's 800 coils were made with a failed system. I haven't had a problem but I am keenly aware of where and how the ears break. When you tighten the bolt very tight it puts pressure on the base of the ear just above the coil. The screw head is so wide it rips at the base of the ear. This lateral force caused by the mechanical advantage of the screw is ALWAYS exerting a force to break the plastic. Now when you get it very tight and you tap the end of your coil to the ground to level or point with it you are providing an additional amplified force which wants to RIP the ear off the coil. I couldn't get Minelab to replace my 17" CTX coil. If anything happens like that to my 15" Equinox coil I'll find a yoke and tie it on like I do with the 17. Those ties never broke but I'd just replace them if they did and I didn't feel any looseness because I pulled them tight with pliers.

As a beach hunter I dig just about everything from a -6 up in an area until I find out it is not worth digging it. I sometimes skip a -2 because it is a hair pin. The -5s sometimes fool me lately because they are tent stakes. The 0s and 1s can be foil bottle seals or ketchup foils but they can also be something good. I get tired or sometimes forget a 14 is a pull tab but they can be real too. Then the clad, corroded pennies can be anywhere from 15-25 on my beaches. They take more interrogation. If I'm working a patch which has quarters, dimes, pennies and jewelry I will sometimes skip a solid 20 to dig something more valuable if the tide is coming in or I just don't have enough time or energy for a penny. That becomes evident at the end of a session of 3-5 hours.

Glad I could put a smile on your face, but just think about when you get to meet Joan/John. I bet you will be checking for an Adams apple.

Congrats on finding the owner, and may the gold gods show you their mercy and kindness. I just hope that Joan is not really a John in disguise.

Concentric coil will reveal a target mixed in iron where a dd will only report iron. As an example on my Tejon I will set my discrimination to break on an iron nail and if there are silver or copper coins in the mix I can still hear them. On a VDI machine the ID#'s will be lower on those targets but you can still ignore the iron.

What is so magic about left vs. right when it comes to hearing? Maybe a symphony orchestra has a convention that certain instruments are on the left and others on the right. But even there, why should it matter? Left brain vs. right brain? With my ML Equinox and its WM08 receiver attached to wired headphones, if I put the WM08 in a right breast shirt/coat pocket then I put the earphone with its attached cord on my right ear. Otherwise, on the left. I don't even know if the Eqx has stereo or mono output, but, again, why should it matter?

It’s a pretty safe bet that a high end multi-IQ variant is in the works, and there are hints that it’s in the beginning stages of testing/development, but there’s nothing to indicate it will be in the hands of the public any time soon. Personally, I consider the equinox to be a high end product performance wise. It’s the build that needs some work/pride, and some visual discrimination tools like CTX as well. In terms of build I think Minelab could take cues from Simplex where pride is taken in the aesthetics no matter the price point. Every machine has had its build quality issues, even Simplex, but aesthetics matter, to me at least.

It's a shame it wasn't an Olympic medal. 6 grams of gold is decent, more gold in an Olympic medal than my biggest ever nugget 🙂 Olympic gold medals are required to be made from at least 92.5% silver, and must contain a minimum of 6 grams of gold. All Olympic medals must be at least 60mm in diameter and 3mm thick. ... Winter Olympics medals have been of more varied design. The silver and bronze medals have always borne the same designs.

If only it was gold.. don't think I'd be returning it in a hurry if it was real.. I'd probably melt it down instead.. 😆

I usually dig anything in the 5 to 12 range in certain areas. Small 14k is always in the 6 to 8, like f350 said it's not worth passing those up.

Great find an I hope that you can return it to whoever lost it. Lets just hope it isn't really a guy that thinks he's a girl that won it. Hope you get the 4wd fixed to get to the fields. Good luck and happy hunting.

I found the 6000 is like all the old Minelabs wrapped in one package. Basically the ultimate prospecting detector, like swinging a vlf, 2300, old gpx, and gpz, all at the same time. For new patches of gold this is awesome! For old patches of gold, if you've already gone over them with ALL of the above detectors, the results probably wont be that epic. A few nuggs will be found, but it doesnt seem to be revealing some new dimension of dirt that the combined effort of the old detectors missed.

Congrats on the ring, love the stone as it is my birth month like grandfathers was. Good luck on your next outing.

I grew up in a logging family on the Oregon coast. We had plenty of complaints about the US Forest Service and their rules and controls. Some of my old complains have carried over about road closures into areas that have gold. I decided to goggle some facts on the USFS. They are responsible for 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands containing 193 million acres They are responsible for more than 380,000 miles of roads in our national forests and grasslands—that’s eight times more than the U.S. interstate highway system. The Forest Service has a workforce of approximately 30,000 employees. Even with seasonal workers and firefighters the numbers are remarkable. I now have a better understanding of their problems. Have a good day, Chet

If you are concerned about it, hook them up to a stereo and find out which one is Left, and then mark it. There are no stereo detectors unless you have one in each hand, and even then you will only hear just one of them.

If they keep managing like they are there may be no forest left for a claim holder to mistakenly burn...